


Victory Lap

by azarias



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, Anal Sex, Dirty Talk, Hook-Up, Kink Meme, M/M, Oral Sex, PWP, seriously just porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:47:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21698728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azarias/pseuds/azarias
Summary: That time Herc and Raleigh banged one out in Manila. You know the one.
Relationships: Raleigh Becket/Hercules Hansen
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	Victory Lap

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in pieces for the kink meme in 2013. I've been meaning to clean it up and post it for seven _years_.
> 
> Anyhow, I didn't do that. No revision, no beta, just dumped straight from my files to AO3. There's at least one cock-related continuity error, a lot of missed opportunities, some damned unfortunate phrasing, and I'm not really sure where I was going with some of the OCs. 
> 
> Porn's still pretty good, though.

Went to Manila. Killed a Kaiju. Time to celebrate. 

They hit the town, all six of them. Raleigh and Yancy, still in step, hungover and euphoric from the Drift. Mi-Kyong and Jennifer Park, the aunt and niece who danced Horizon Brave like it was made of air and gauze, not ten thousand tons of steel. Legend said they each had their Jaeger tattooed somewhere on their bodies, and if you found it you won a prize. And the veterans, Adishakti Thakur and Herc Hansen, who’d been in the war from the beginning and had more notches on their belts than most people had fingers. This had been their first kill in Hydra Corinthian.

“Manila!” Raleigh announced when they stepped out of the hotel, raising his arms to welcome the roaring city and the heavy, warm air. “Manila, we are fucking amazing!”

Yancy glared at him and Raleigh grinned right back, because Yancy’s arms were halfway up and it was never not funny to play his brother like a puppet with the strings left over from the Drift. Not like Raleigh was the only one who did it.

They were all dressed down. The Corps was run by the kind of people who took it kinda bad when one or a dozen of their Rangers got caught dancing on a bar more or less in uniform. Just one more reason why the people who ran the Corps weren’t the people who strapped into Jaegers and killed some fucking Kaiju, ‘cause with that stick up their ass they wouldn’t fit in the drive suits.

Raleigh and Yancy went with jeans and button-downs, classic American boy good looks because they were American and holy shit did they look good. They’d left their leather jackets with Gipsy’s logo behind, though, because Yancy’d over-ruled on the basis they’d look like assholes. Leather jacket, in the tropics -- maybe he had a point.

Raleigh’s whole left side was going to be a bruise tomorrow from where he’d thrown himself hard into a punch from Berberoka, and he’d kept falling, getting down into the water out of the way of the flying leap Horizon Brave had made right into the Kaiju’s chest. Tonight he could barely feel it; tonight he felt too damned good to feel anything else.

The Parks were wearing somewhat less, Auntie Mi-Kyong in tight jeans and a flowing top that was open all the way down her back, Grace in what might’ve been a repurposed bikini, both of them balanced like ballerinas on spindly high heels that still left them the shortest pilots in the drop. Raleigh snuck a few looks but he still couldn’t find the tattoos. Maybe if he looked closer, but he wasn’t stupid and _Hey, it’s okay, I’m gay_ wasn’t gonna save him if they took offense. 

Yancy might not save him, either, because nothing said brotherly love like laughing while your brother got stomped into the pavement by two women half his size.

Hansen managed to look like he was in uniform, the way he held himself straight and controlled, though what he was actually wearing was a t-shirt and jeans, even more casual than Raleigh. But it was, no lie, God’s gift to t-shirts. The Chosen T-shirt. The Ark of the Tight T-shirt Covenant. Olive-drab and with his dog tags tucked in the crewneck collar and with every single muscle right where Raleigh and the rest of the grateful public could see it. Raleigh was careful about sneaking looks there, too, because the PPDC being an equal-opportunity employer didn’t mean that butch Aussie soldiers who could scare a kaiju to death by looking at them were okay with being ogled by guys.

Anyhow, Thakur was hanging onto his arm, nearly as tall and nearly as butch as Hansen himself despite her pink lipstick and manicured nails, and if you wanted to talk about fights Raleigh couldn’t win --

He didn’t know for sure the two of them were sleeping together, but it didn’t really matter. Civilians thought there were two kinds of people who could Drift together, family and friends so close they might as well be blood, but that wasn’t it. Raleigh didn’t like to get spiritual about it -- there were people who did, and they were invariably strange and hard to be around -- but two people who could Drift were one soul in two bodies. That was how it was. And when you locked into a jaeger, and you reached out and your mind and their mind and the machine took hold, it was just one body, oddly shaped. 

Raleigh wasn’t going to horn in on that. He was just gonna take a guy or two back to his room tonight and maybe imagine one of them was Herc Hansen, which wasn’t at all weird. You could not tell him he was the only person who did that.

Manila was basically one big street party after Berberoka died in the harbor, three Jaegers pulling it apart limb from limb from too many limbs, and the swirl of people was as strong as any rip current, everyone wanting to touch the six pilots who’d saved them, and the distinction between this place and that place was kinda blurry. The music was raucous, filling up every space between bodies, dance beats from a dozen different cultures bleeding one into the other as they moved through the celebration. They'd won again. Manila had won its life again and there was no new wreckage among the scars still gouged into the city from the first attack five years ago when there'd been no Rangers to hold the line.

At the bar, the third bar or maybe the fourth -- Raleigh wasn’t that drunk, promise, but it wasn't like Raleigh was paying for his drinks, or like his glass was allowed to stay empty. 

At the bar, Yancy picked up two sorority sisters and a blonde from Copenhagen. Raleigh couldn’t tell if the blonde and the Filipino girls had known each other before or not, but when the chips were down they worked together like they were in the Drift and got Yancy surrounded tight enough the crowd couldn’t break them up. Last thing Raleigh saw of his brother was a shit-eating grin as the three women dragged him out the door. Raleigh threw a sazlute his way because he probably wasn’t gonna see Yancy for a day or two.

He'd get the details across the neural handshake next time. Not something he really wanted, but it was inevitable so there was no sense dreading it. Yancy was straight as a ruler and could've taught a class on sucking cock from what he'd picked up out of Raleigh's head. You got used to it. You vandalized each other's lockers with porn and dildos and you moved on.

Then Raleigh got drunker, still not that drunk but drunk enough that when Adishakti sidled up to him and said, “He’s a pushy bastard about everything else but he’s never going to ask, he’s got some idea that rough old soldiers aren’t a turn-on for twenty year old pilots with a daddy kink you can see from space,” Raleigh kissed her cheek and bulled through the crowd the whole three meters between him and Colonel Hansen. 

Better judgment caught up with him just before he could grab Hansen’s ass. He took a breath, bid better judgment good night, and slid his hands up Hansen’s back instead, north of the belt but, oops, under the shirt. Much less forward.

He was leaning in while Hansen was turning toward him and when their eyes met their lips were only a couple of inches apart but Raleigh wasn’t dumb enough to go for it just yet. What he did instead was say, “I just really, really want you to throw me up against a wall and fuck me,” with his eyes locked on Hansen’s. "I mean, please?"

Hansen's eyes were wide.

Ah, shit. He'd seduced guys before, really. He could, actually, be smooth. Somewhere between his brain and his mouth there was a filter and he needed to find it and shove it back into place real fast before --

Hansen's hand clamped onto his wrist. Raleigh bit back a moan.

Hansen leaned in beside Raleigh to speak in his ear, which was a relief just for a second because it meant Raleigh wasn't looking into his eyes and could _breathe_. But Hansen said, "Not fucking funny, son," and that really, really was not anything Raleigh wanted to hear coming out of his mouth right now.

He swallowed. "No, sir," he said, and Hansen stood back to put some distance between them but Hansen still held his wrist and Raleigh's other hand was still on Hansen's waist. Bare skin, beneath the shirt. That was good. As long as Hansen was listening to him he could save this. 

As long as he got to touch Hansen's body he could stack up jerk-off material in the back of his mind just in case he didn't get anything better tonight.

"Not trying to be funny, sir." He licked his lips and belatedly realized he could've tried to make that a sexy lick, but really his mouth was just kind of dry and he was regretting leaving his drink on the bar. "It's just. Major Thakur said …" and oh, god, no, this wasn't a winning strategy, _Mom said I could do it_. "I just am really. Really. Into the idea of getting your cock in me tonight. Colonel." 

He laughed and was desperately afraid it sounded like a nervous giggle. "Not a new idea, believe me."

Hansen glared, but not at him. Over his shoulder, back into the crowd, and Raleigh craned his neck to see Adishakti waving at him with a smirk and a beer in her hand. 

Oh, god. Oh, _shit_. Had it been a joke? She'd know, your copilot would _know_ what you wanted, but he'd taken her word for it without even thinking. He looked back at Hansen, who wasn't looking happy, who was maybe deciding what he was going to do about the idiot who had his hands all over him. 

He shouldn't have done this with his brother gone. Yancy might think it was funny to see girls slap him around but that was a whole different game from the kind of fight that could start in a bar where you'd guessed wrong about a guy and he took exception to being taken for a fag. When that happened, and sometimes it happened, it was 2019 but things that wouldn't get you noticed in the Lower 48 could still get your ass kicked in Anchorage and maybe in Manila, his brother had his back.

Two Rangers fighting together couldn't be stopped. Two Rangers fighting each other, with Hansen's copilot right there ready to back him up, those weren't good odds.

People pushed up against them. People still tried to get close to them, took pictures of them, drifted away again. He didn't think anyone else had heard what he'd said, because the music and the bodies and the current of the crowd whipped any sound away if you weren't as close as Raleigh and Hansen were.

Raleigh tried to find his balance, tried to remember where the exits were. But Hansen hadn't let go of his wrist, wasn't throwing his hand off his waist. And when he looked at Raleigh -- he wasn't glaring. Total change of expression from the look he'd shot at Thakur. Raleigh wasn't sure _what_ the look on his face meant but it didn't look like he was going to start throwing punches.

Done freaking out. Fix the problem. 

"I'm sorry. If I -- I made a mistake --" 

But Hansen shook his head and leaned in to speak to him again. "Turn around, head back to the hotel. I'm going to finish my drink and then I'll be right behind. Stay where I can see you."

That was it. Hansen let go of him and didn't throw Raleigh's hand off but stepped out of it, somehow, without moving away in the tight press of the crowd. He nodded at Raleigh, kept an eye on him while he brought his half-finished drink back to his lips and tilted his head back.

Raleigh had no, _no_ clue what was going on, or what Hansen meant. Back to the hotel -- to fuck him? To call the MPs and report harassment? Call Pentecost, maybe. That would be worse than any ass-beating could be.

Following orders might be the least bad idea Raleigh'd had in the last ten minutes, so he nodded, sharply as he could when, okay, _yes_ he'd had too much alcohol and adrenaline and the thick night air was making him feel like he couldn't get enough oxygen and all his movements were a little sloppy. But he couldn't fall down when there were people all around, and the crowd still moved for him, letting him leave the bar with only a fleeting touch from every hand as the price.

Every time he looked back, he saw Hansen following him. The walk cleared his head a little. Looking back scrambled it up again.

Back and forward, clear and crazy, all the way to the hotel. Hansen caught up with him in the lobby. 

They waited for the elevator. It wasn't the kind of hotel where you had to call the elevator yourself. They had people for that. No shit, there was a guy there and as best Raleigh'd been able to figure out his only job was to push the elevator button so the guests at the hotel didn't have to. It wasn't the kind of hotel soldiers and working boys from Alaska got to stay in, but Jaeger pilots who'd just saved the whole country sure as hell did.

Hansen touched him again.

It was -- maybe? Maybe a good sign. It _felt_ good. It wasn't the same as it had been back in the bar. Not a rough, powerful hand around his wrist. Just that same hand, lightly resting on the small of his back, steering him or helping him stay upright. He didn't need either but wanted more and he couldn't get a read on Hansen to save his life, which was frustrating and _scary_ because Raleigh was a Ranger. He read people, situations, tides. Kaiju. That and no apparent fear of death were the skills that earned him the chance to play with the big toys.

The only thing he was absolutely sure about was that his dick was getting harder by the second with Hansen's hand on him. His fucking stupid dick. It hadn't given him any good advice at _all_ tonight and now it wouldn't shut up even though he was in public and his jeans weren't hiding anything. One way or the other he was going to have to do the shuffle of shame back to his room. With Hansen right there. He faced the elevator resolutely and schooled his expression to stone.

Maybe he needed to admit that relying on his crotch for guidance was a bad way to go through life. 

It took everything he had not to jump into the elevator and slap the emergency override the moment the doors cracked open. Instead he stepped in. No, fuck that. He _strode_ in like he owned the place, head high. Hansen told the floor to the button-pusher guy and it was Raleigh's floor, with his suite and Yancy's facing each other across the hall. The Parks were on another floor, and Hansen and Thakur split the penthouse -- that was what rank got you. 

So they went to Raleigh's place. Hansen's hand was steady pressure in his back, not pushing him along, just not giving him the option of stopping in the first place.

They went to Raleigh's _bedroom_.

Raleigh's stomach flipped end for end and he barely stopped himself from cheering. Hansen gave off weird signals but Hansen was also ungodly hot and so Raleigh could cope with the signal to noise problem. He was the _man_ at sorting out signals.

Before Raleigh could turn and maybe kiss him, Hansen patted him on the back and said, "Get in bed."

Raleigh was naked before he realized Hansen was gone.

He blinked at the empty room, confused. Bare-assed naked and confused in a hotel bedroom with a side that was starting to ache. He crossed his arms, feeling a sudden chill. The AC was barely audible through the vents, buzzing along in a stalemate against the tropical heat. 

"Son of a bitch," he murmured, because there was nothing else to say. 

Maybe he'd feel better if he yelled it. He kicked his pants away and tried it. "Son of a _bitch!_ "

The water cut off in the bathroom and Hansen came out. Raleigh stumbled. Hansen looked at him impassively. 

Raleigh's training kicked in after the silence was already awkward. Situational awareness. Him, and the pants he'd kicked onto a chair. Herc Hansen, and the glass of water in Hansen's hand. And the bright yellow mylar square tucked between two of Hansen's fingers.

"Is that … are you giving me _aspirin_?" 

"Paracetamol would just hit your liver harder, so, yes," Hansen said. He was looking Raleigh right in the eyes. He gestured with the glass. "Get in bed, take your pills, drink this and I'll fill it up again before I go."

Raleigh's dick was so confused. But Raleigh -- 

Raleigh was starting to put the pieces together and he was going to have to figure out whether he wanted to laugh or scream at the picture they were making. "Colonel Hansen, I'm not _drunk_." 

Hansen cocked a skeptical eyebrow. 

Raleigh coughed and stood up straighter, grasping for poise. "I'm not anywhere near as drunk as you _think_ I am, sir. I don't need aspirin. This isn't my first rodeo and _wow_ do I not need you to _take care of me_."

He looked down. That hadn't come out quite right. Had sounded better in his head. 

Soft footsteps in heavy boots. Hansen's hand was on his shoulder. "Son, sit down. It's all right."

"Really?" He looked back up at Hansen and the guy was _still staring_ right into his eyes. 

Probably sarcasm wasn't the right tone to hit but shrieking in sheer frustration might be sort of off-putting. "You sure? Because I am naked, horny, and trying not to actually die of embarrassment at being _this bad_ at getting someone to go to bed with me. From my angle, sir, it's not all right." 

Hansen didn't push him to sit, thank god. If he had, Raleigh might've taken a swing at _him_ , and it would've been the MPs for sure. Instead Hansen sighed, and stepped around him to put the water and the pill packet on the nightstand by the bed. He put his hands in his pockets when he faced Raleigh again.

"Lieutenant Becket," he said, and though his voice was still low there was something unyielding in his tone, "whatever idea you might've gotten about me, I'm not in the habit of molesting junior officers after a night spent drinking. You're going to bed. I'm going back to my room. Sooner you take that aspirin the less you'll regret it come morning." 

Hands in his pockets, eyes on Raleigh's face. Hang the fuck on a minute. Raleigh _knew_ that pose. Not too long ago, Raleigh'd been a teenager and he'd gotten good at that pose. 

That was _the hiding an erection and trying not to check someone out_ pose.

 _Oh, I've got you. You amazing bastard, your copilot promised me you_ take _what you want and that's what you're going to give me._ The fight now was not to crack a grin and scare Hansen off.

Raleigh let his arms fall to his sides, opened up his body language, subtly dropping his defense. _Hansen_ was trying to defend him and that needed to stop. "With due respect, sir," he said, "you're reading the field wrong. Couple of facts you need to consider."

"Lieutenant --"

"First," Raleigh said without a pause, "like every other pilot on this drop, I went out to get laid tonight. Like every other Ranger in the history of the Corps after killing a Kaiju. Our go-bags _literally have lube and condoms_ because the Corps thinks it's easier to keep us from getting the clap than to convince us to keep it in our pants." True fact. 

"I sit through the same anti-harassment workshop you do every six months, so keep that in mind before you start quoting it at me. This isn't alcohol-fueled consent. Having company tonight was the plan all along."

_With you! Sex with you! Anything else was Plan B!_

Yancy had picked up three girls. Three! Raleigh just wanted _one_ guy and he was drunk slut in the family?

Of course Hansen was gonna argue. "I know what you went out looking for, Lieutenant." Oh like _Hansen_ hadn't been doing the same thing. "I'm not judging. There's a difference between going out to meet a friendly local and -- what you're doing now.

"Whatever Shakti said to you, I'll deal with her tomorrow. I came to see you safe back. That's it."

He still wasn't looking at Raleigh's body, which was a damned shame because Raleigh had a _fantastic_ body and wanted to spend the rest of the night rubbing it all over him. But his tone wasn't quite the calm, authoritative one he'd been using. He sounded like he was less confident in what he was saying, or maybe like he was getting nervous. Or both! Raleigh could work with both. 

Raleigh needed to speak up for Adishakti. Disregarding that heart attack he'd had back in the bar when he'd thought for a minute she'd been pulling a prank, she'd done him a solid.

"Major Thakur told me you weren't ever going to make a pass at me because you didn't want to _push_. And that you had some weird idea that you weren't attr-- wait, you know I'm gay, right?" Probably should've made that clear to start, but he'd thought it was pretty implicit in the 'fuck me, Daddy, please' begging he'd been doing. He shook his head.

"Of course you do, it's in the file. No secrets in the Pacific. Anyhow, second point, having a thing for older men is so common it's barely even a _kink_. It's a _cliche_. I was trying my hardest not to be creepy when you walked out in that shirt, but, I mean, it's so tight I can see your _freckles_ outlined by it and I've been kinda distracted ever since by how badly I want to count them with my tongue."

Sometimes, if you moved just right, moved like there was nothing else you should be doing, you could get right up in a person's space before they reacted. Good move to know when you needed to punch someone in the gut. Or when you just needed to touch them, put your hands flat on their stomach and out around their sides in long strokes because you were _not_ kidding about the t-shirt or the freckles and they had to stop pretending you weren't hot for them. Like, right now.

Raleigh let his hands rest light on Hansen's hips. Hansen could get away if he wanted to, no problem, but it'd have to be deliberate. He'd have to make up his mind to walk away. 

If Hansen did that, Raleigh'd have to call room service for a bottle of tequila and drink 'til he couldn't keep it up anymore because he'd talked himself right back into a hard-on and it wasn't going to go away without help. 

Not acceptable.

Raleigh dropped his eyes to Hansen's lips, both because he wanted to look at him and because looking down made his eyelashes look longer. He and Hansen were the same height, and neither of them were small guys but Raleigh was built _big_ and had a good ten, twelve kilos on Hansen, easy. Not a problem even when Raleigh wanted to look a little shy, a little vulnerable. That was what the puppy-dog eyes were for. 

"If I've … made a mistake, made you uncomfortable, I'm really, really sorry." He didn't even have to work to bring a blush to his cheeks. Arousal had done that for him. 

"Just tell me that you don't want this, and I'll back off and I swear I'll never mention it again. But if you're doing this because -- because you don't want to take advantage of me, or because you think you need to protect my _honor_ , well, sir." He huffed out a laugh. "You're about five years late."

He glanced up, through his lashes, and he could've cheered for what he saw in Hansen's face. He _didn't_ stop the horny little whimper this time when Hansen touched him at hip and shoulder.

Hansen's thumb stroked up and down his neck. Raleigh was absolutely sure Hansen could feel his pulse pounding there. It felt like a drumroll in his chest. 

"My boy's nearly your age," Hansen said and that was _not_ helping Raleigh's knees not to buckle, not even a little. "He doesn't do what I tell him, either."

Did Hansen kiss? Not every guy wanted to. Raleigh could take that in a one-night stand. He'd be disappointed, but you couldn't ask for much. He'd dumped his last boyfriend over it, though. That had been, god, two years ago? Three. He'd been practically a kid, still. Just before he and Yancy got the word they'd made the cut and were going to pilot Jaegers, not run around as support crew or get seconded as chopper pilots like they'd been dreading. Hadn't had _time_ for dating anyone since then. Yancy and Gipsy took up all of his heart.

He was going to stop thinking about all the guys he hadn't kissed and kiss the guy in front of him. Hansen could stop him if he didn't like it.

Hansen.

Fuck.

Hansen liked it. Hansen liked it and was _really good at it_ and Raleigh just sort of melted into it, which was easy because Hansen wasn't being careful about how he touched him anymore, had him pulled close and his hand was digging into the border of the bruise on Raleigh's side and it felt _good_. His mouth was still sweet with the liquor they'd all been drinking and the way his tongue pushed into Raleigh's mouth made it clear that, yeah, Adishakti'd been exactly right. _He's a pushy bastard_. 

Raleigh's dick, Raleigh's brilliant fucking dick that had all the best ideas, was caught between Raleigh's stomach and the edge of Hansen's jeans and it took _everything_ he had not to try to hump Hansen's waistband. He could feel Hansen's own cock hard in his jeans and Hansen wasn't too proud to rub against him, letting Raleigh's thigh press up where it could do some good.

The kiss ended when Hansen ended it. Raleigh would've kept going even though he felt light-headed and the way he was panting made him want to know if you really _could_ pass out just from deciding to kiss a guy instead of breathe.

Strong arms around him meant he wasn't actually going to fall. Meant he couldn't just sink to his knees and unzip Hansen's pants with his teeth right now, either, but maybe if he asked for it Hansen wouldn't say no. 

"I'm actually," Raleigh said, "good at following orders."

"Yeah?"

Hansen was looking at him again, but not with the intense stare that'd nearly scared him off the trail earlier. It was a different look, softer, though maybe the only difference was that Hansen's eyelids were halfway closed and his cheeks flushed red enough that his blue eyes gleamed in contrast. 

Raleigh kissed him again, quick on the lips and then down to mouth at his jaw. "Uh-huh. They've just gotta be good ones."

Hansen hadn't shaved before they'd gone out. If he hadn't had a psychic line straight into Raleigh's libido -- and Raleigh wasn't ruling out that he might've; rumor was the techs who serviced the Pons were bribable, though the other rumor was that the techs made up that story so no one stole their coffee stash -- then it was the best fucking coincidence ever because Raleigh loved the rough burn of stubble over his lips. He kept himself clean-shaven, mostly because he looked good, but also because whenever he had the chance to rub his smooth cheek up again a five o'clock shadow he was going to take it and shiver from the sting.

When he stopped it was because Hansen made him, just like when the kissing had stopped. That was good, that was great, _whatever_ Hansen wanted to make him do.

Hansen asked, "Where's your bag?" and his hands were firm enough on Raleigh that they short-circuited Raleigh's instinct to _dive_ for where he'd left the PPDC's finest personal lubrication and non-latex prophylactics.

Raleigh nodded to the bedside table instead, where the water and the aspirin sat like a still-life of the failure that tonight could've been. "Already got them out. Top drawer."

The drawer was nearly in reach still; Hansen barely had to step away, and Raleigh still felt wrapped up in his warmth even without pressing right up against him. It was different from the tropical heat that slouched heavy over the city outside and tried to make Raleigh slow. This was invigorating. Raleigh could run ten miles and fight a Kaiju, right now, no Yancy needed. He could climb Hansen like a tree and let Hansen fuck his ass til the weird, expensive bed gave way beneath them.

He'd rather do that than the run, that was for sure.

Hansen looked back at Raleigh with a raised eyebrow. Yes, Raleigh had emptied his entire PPDC-issued stash into the drawer. And the extras the hotel had provided, too. Raleigh shrugged.

It was called planning ahead.

Hansen threw a handful of condoms and a bottle of lube on the bed. The lube bounced; the condoms fluttered but mostly settled and that? That was a good sign oh jesus christ _please_ let that be an indication of how much Hansen thought they were gonna need to have on hand. And Hansen had another condom in his hand, corner of the foil pack prickling into Raleigh's hip as Hansen took him in hand again and --

Shoved the glass of water into his hand. Raleigh blinked. "Seriously?"

Hansen was unimpressed. "You want to prove you can follow orders? That's the first one. Drink it or this is as far as we get."

Raleigh drank the fucking water. Tipped the glass upside down to prove he'd got it all and tossed the empty vaguely bed-ward. He threw a challenging look at Hansen.

"Good boy." 

Hansen was being a smartass but it hit Raleigh like a bolt from his head to his toes anyhow. Raleigh's eyes widened and his just-wetted mouth felt so dry he licked his lips to find the last drops of water and Hansen _saw_.

Hansen was shoving him, not enough to knock him down but rough staccato pushes until Raleigh's back hit the wall and Hansen was right up on him, pinning him, grabbed his wrists and slammed them to the wall at head height. 

"You like that?" Hansen asked, rhetorical because he could _hear_ Raleigh's shocked, needy gasps and he wasn't blind so he had to see how Raleigh's _entire_ body was one taut bow-string of _please_ , but the sadistic fucking bastard wanted him to dig up enough wherewithal to say something and Raleigh would do anything he wanted right now, would do things he couldn't even think up names for. He almost wanted Hansen to ask for some of those things, just so that he could prove he would, he _would_ and it would be _amazing_.

Raleigh said, "Yes, sir," because that was easy, and, "Like you to do it again, sir," because that was almost a complete sentence and if what Hansen wanted was for him to talk, he'd figure out how.

Fingers squeezed like steel cords around his wrists, not digging in, nowhere near painful but making him present, demanding he pay attention.

"And?" Hansen asked. 

Raleigh licked his lips again, battering his brain into putting words in order, picking out one string of words out of all the possibilities jumbling together. Said, "You could -- pull my hair, sir. Please."

 _And kiss me again_ he thought but hesitated to say, and before he could Hansen's hand was petting his hair and then digging in, fingers stroking down to his scalp and then _twisting_ into a fist with thick locks of hair caught between them. All Raleigh had was one pained hiss before Hansen took his mouth again, forced Raleigh's lips open with his tongue and then …

Took his time, gentle and exploring, his other hand releasing Raleigh's wrist just to stroke lightly at Raleigh's upper arm. It was like there was no urgency at all, just thoroughness, except his fingers still twined through Raleigh's hair and the steady burning pressure birthed bright spots of pain every time he flexed his hand.

Raleigh was actually going to die, just like this, and it would be okay.

Hands free, Raleigh didn't really have a clear plan but while Hansen did what he wanted with Raleigh's mouth Raleigh took the chance to touch again. 

Hadn't been able to do _enough_ of that yet. It was all Hansen's hands and Hansen's orders and it wasn't fair, Hansen and his fucking gay porn magic t-shirt had started all this so Raleigh should get to touch him, too. 

So he did. There was absolutely no hurry, because Hansen wasn't letting him go. Even the times when he paused in kissing, rested his forehead against Raleigh's and just let them both breathe, the iron hand in Raleigh's hair didn't relent. Raleigh's head was getting sore, but that hardly seemed to matter when Hansen had taken to petting him, gently over his jaw and cheek, even into his hair where the contrast between left hand and right was ridiculous and delicious. 

So Raleigh touched him. Sharp shoulders and broad chest and Hansen _growled_ when Raleigh found his nipples peaked and begging to be played with. Hard, flat stomach, but a waist that was maybe starting to get a little thick as he tore past forty. And the t-shirt riding up. Raleigh hooked his fingers under it and all his brain could handle was the idea of getting Hansen _out_ of his clothes.

Hansen caught his hands.

Raleigh all but sobbed in frustration and want. Pinned to the wall again, hands up over his head, crossed at the wrist like he was tied there but it was just Hansen's one hand holding him. Could've broken Hansen's grip. It'd be ridiculously easy, kick him away and shove him back to where Raleigh could find some leverage and his greater mass would tell. Could get Hansen on the floor, strip him bare and let him see how much _he_ liked being pushed around.

Thing was, Raleigh really, really liked being pushed around and wasn't inclined to stop it.

The sudden release of tension from his scalp left him weak-kneed and he didn't try to fight it. Trembled under Hansen's hold and hitched his knee up to Hansen's thigh because he didn't _need_ to get off right this second but he wouldn't complain if it happened. He just needed some friction. 

"Raleigh."

Hansen's drawl pulled his attention back.

"Sir?"

"What _else_?"

Raleigh could just see the edge of his smile before he bent to nose at Raleigh's neck, finding nerve endings that ran straight to Raleigh's cock. Dragging his lips over them. Raleigh twitched his hips desperately, trying to take the pressure off or put more on, he wasn't sure, but he couldn't do enough of either. And Hansen was going to keep this up til he got an answer.

Raleigh tried. Wide-eyed and panting, stare fixed on the ceiling while he desperately sorted his through his thoughts for something that made sense. "My. My mouth?" he asked. "You could fuck my mouth. Put me on my knees and fuck my mouth. You can -- I can suck you off. Keep my hands behind my back and you can make me swallow you. Hold my hair while you fuck my face. Shit, Herc, I'm dying here. Please."

Oh please, oh please let that be approval in Hansen's eyes. Raleigh had so many ideas, if Hansen didn't like this one he'd like something else but Raleigh wasn't sure he could make them come out right.

Hansen brushed a light kiss to his mouth and another to his forehead. "Can you keep your hands like this?" he asked, squeezing Raleigh's wrists harder above his head to bring Raleigh's attention to them. Raleigh nodded eagerly. "Good boy. Stay like this."

He let go and Raleigh ordered his arms to stay there, obey. Driving a Jaeger, standing off the coast to watch and wait until the Kaiju came to you, that took standing still sometime for hours while the ocean battered against the metal body that you wore. He could do that. He could do this.

Hansen eased Raleigh's leg down and Raleigh caught his balance, standing tall against the wall like an invisible rope held him there while Hansen -- Christ, Hansen sank to his _knees_ and brought the condom to his mouth, tore it open with his teeth while his eyes held Raleigh's, and when he took Raleigh's cock in his big, calloused hand Raleigh's vision blurred.

Raleigh thrust into Hansen's hand. It was rough and tight and unyielding and Raleigh couldn't take his eyes off Hansen, how pleased Hansen looked. When Hansen swiped his thumb across the head and smeared the beads of moisture that had welled up there Raleigh moaned.

"Oh, god. Thank you, sir."

His hips jerked faster, dragging the so-sensitive head of his cock through the ring Hansen's thumb and forefinger made again and again. Orgasm was pulling at him, building pressure like a bomb the slightest trigger would set off.

Hansen chuckled but _let him go_ , which wasn't fucking funny. Hansen stroked his thighs, gentle though he smirked at the dazed glare Raleigh was giving him. "Shh," he said, "Slow down, Raleigh. S'alright." 

And he pressed his face into Raleigh's thigh and nuzzled _beside_ Raleigh's cock, left it bobbing red and needy. "Oh, god," Raleigh whimpered again. It was good, it was really, really good, and though Raleigh wanted to curse in frustration at just standing there with his hands above his fucking head and Hansen playing with him like there was no urgency at all, he didn't. Just willed himself to take it, and Hansen petting him did help. Calmed him down. 

"Thank you, sir," he said, eyes squeezed shut. "I'm all right now. And you're a bastard."

His face was flushed and his skin felt too hot but he was okay, he was. 

Hansen sat back on his heels. "Smartass." When Hansen said it, it was almost affectionate. 

"Raleigh, look at me. How're your arms?"

Raleigh rolled his shoulders, loosening up the knots that had drawn tight there. His fingertips prickled but he squeezed his hands into fists and then relaxed them and they were fine. "I'm good," he reported. "Could stand here all night."

His stomach fluttered and he bit back a panicked explanation that no, actually he didn't want to stand there all night, oh god, just how sadistic _was_ Hansen?

"All right," was all Hansen said, before he popped the translucent red condom out of his torn wrapper and rolled it down over Raleigh's cock. Raleigh's breath hissed through his gritted teeth but it wasn't overwhelming, didn't send him back into the driving need for orgasm Hansen had brought him down from. The rubber dulled sensation just a little, made it so his cock wasn't overwhelming everything else the rest of his body felt.

Then Hansen licked up Raleigh's length from root to tip. 

Tongue-tip flicked fast over the edge of exposed skin and left a little spot of wet for the cooled room air to tickle over. Pressed hard along the underside, pressure not dampened at all by the rubber. Barely passed over cock-head and before Raleigh's appreciative groan died out Hansen brought the head into his mouth and gripped the base of Raleigh's cock with one of those amazing hands of his. He held the condom in place and he _sucked_. 

Then he stopped and Raleigh's heart nearly stopped with him. "Wha--"

Hansen made a strange face and licked his lips. "Just … cinnamon flavored. Wasn't expecting that."

Raleigh stared. Hansen looked thoughtful for a moment, then visibly shrugged. He bent his head again and _swallowed_ til his lips touched his hand where it wrapped around Raleigh's cock and Raleigh was good. He was fantastic. 

Raleigh's hips worked against the wall. Those evil fucking _hands_ kept him from moving much and he wasn't the kind of guy who was going to fuck someone's throat without asking nicely, anyhow. The imaginary rope around his wrists was a point of stability. As long as he could keep his hands there he had a little bit of control.

He moaned out encouragement because he couldn't _not_ , not with Hansen working his dick like this was just another thing he did every day, just another thing he was the best in the Corps at. Hands and mouth and a hard shove any time Raleigh got into a position he didn't like, and there was a fire building behind Raleigh's eyes, coals burning in his hips. 

"If you," he panted. "Don't want me to come. Doing it wrong."

Hansen shot him a sardonic look. He pulled his mouth off Raleigh with an obscene wet _pop_. Licked the cinnamon off his lips again but didn't seem bothered by it. Raleigh whimpered. Shook his head. Tried to convey _no, don't stop_ but Hansen's hands held him even harder against the wall and he couldn't _move_. Just looked down at his own cock inches from Hansen's mouth and so hard and dark-flushed Hansen _couldn't_ be enough of a bastard to make him stay like this.

Hansen asked, "Son, I've only got one mouth. Do you want me to call the shots for you, or suck you off?" 

His deep voice was rougher still from taking Raleigh's cock all the way down his throat. Maybe he could get Raleigh off just from growling like that.

"Suck!" Raleigh answered immediately. "Oh, god, suck. I have _got_ to come."

Hansen shook his head playfully. "You're not bad for the ego, Lieutenant." 

"Thank you, sir," was halfway out of Raleigh's mouth when Hansen swallowed him again, moved his hand out of the way and deep-throated Raleigh, swallowed hard before he pulled back to bob hot pressure up and down a smaller stretch of Raleigh's cock or take it out of his mouth entirely and stroke his tongue across the head without an ounce of mercy.

The words slurred together in Raleigh's throat but just kept going, "Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir," in a fevered chant. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead into his own bicep, the burn in his arms the only thing that was entirely his right now. 

Hansen's fingers dug into his ass, pulled his hips a little bit away from the wall so that Raleigh had to arch his back to keep his hands in place and his shoulders took the worst of it, tremors from the strain nearly rattling his teeth. Hansen kneaded his cheeks with blunt-nailed fingers that stopped just short of digging bruises into the muscle and Raleigh couldn't, could _not_ think about Hansen fingering him open right now because that would be _too much_. 

He lost track of what he was saying, more _Thank you_ s and _God, yes_ ses and things that made less sense. It was a culmination and a _relief_ when he came, jerking against Hansen's grip and spurting hot and hard into the tip of the rubber. Hansen's hold on him relented not one iota and Hansen's mouth nursed him through it, slow bobbing of his head like he was swallowing Raleigh's come until Raleigh was spent.

Hansen eased his hips back. Hansen pulled the condom off of him. That was good, because Raleigh couldn't. Raleigh was going to need a minute.

There was a soft thump as the tied-off condom landed in the nearest trashcan and then Hansen was speaking to him, rubbing his hands over Raleigh's triceps where they still bracketed his head. "Let go, Raleigh. Come on. Over to the bed."

Dreamily, Raleigh let himself be led to the bed, sat down on the edge and he just sort of tipped over, wound up on his back with his legs hanging off. He rubbed his wrists over his stomach, one then the other. Wasn't really stiff or sore, but the release felt odd. Not having that one thing to concentrate on while Hansen drove all the rest. Felt like he'd come unmoored.

The bed shifted under Hansen's weight. Raleigh smiled at him, soft and probably kind of dopey. He'd taken off his pants and boots. His cock thrust up dark with arousal from a tangle of dark red curls, heavy balls framed by muscular thighs. Uncircumcised. 

He still wore the t-shirt. 

"My turn?" Raleigh murmured. He licked his lips, not because his mouth was dry. 

Hansen pulled the shirt off over his head. Raleigh looked hungrily over the muscles he'd seen in outline and shadow all night. Scars across his shoulders and one on his stomach, some of them identifiable as the leavings of an early drive suit, some not. Ruddy chest hair, not thick and not sparse, just a matter-of-fact part of a masculine body, exquisitely honed and powerful and confident. Dog tags still there, dangling askew on their chain.

And he did have freckles all the way down.

"Damn," Raleigh swore softly.

"Mm?" Hansen asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raleigh reached out a hand. Scratched his fingers through the chest hair, ran them down over the stomach scar and around to one side, just above the hip where for some reason the freckles were clustered thick. One, two, three, a hundred. 

"Not enough time to count 'em all," he mourned.

Hansen caught his hand, brought it to his mouth just to brush his lips across the knuckles. Didn't let it go, though. Looked at Raleigh and pulled two of Raleigh's fingers into his mouth, ran his tongue over the tips and sucked gently. Pressed his teeth into them, too: not so gentle, under the surface. Every line of his face said pleasure while he fellated Raleigh's fingers, just like he had his cock. 

"You're actually trying to kill me," Raleigh said. 

He still felt unreal, calm. "This is real, right?" he asked. "You're really here. This isn't just a really amazing sex dream?"

Hansen pulled his mouth off of Raleigh's fingers, left them glistening with spit, suddenly cool after the heat of Hansen's mouth. "Yeah," Hansen said. "We're both here." 

He let go of Raleigh's hand, eased it like Raleigh might break if he dropped. And he threaded his fingers back through Raleigh's hair, took a firm hold. Just to hold Raleigh where he needed him, while he took his cock in his other hand and held it to Raleigh's mouth. 

Raleigh kept his lips shut just so Hansen would have to press the head of his cock against them. When he opened his mouth it was just enough, a tight little hole for Hansen to fuck into while Raleigh got his teeth out of the way and told himself to breath, slow and even. Through his nose. 

Hansen's own breath hitched and Raleigh rolled his eyes up to look at him, looked up through his lashes. Hansen seemed to be a sucker for that. Raleigh couldn't smile, couldn't speak with his mouth so full, but he wanted Hansen to look at him and see _please, more_. See how _much_ he wanted what Hansen was doing to him. 

There was already salt smeared across the cockhead, smeared sweet and strong on Raleigh's lips and tongue. God, Hansen was so thick, so _hard_. It must have been torment, caught tight in his jeans, and.

And Raleigh had barely _touched him_. He was this hard and most of it had come from watching Raleigh, from sucking Raleigh's cock. 

Raleigh's eyes burned and he squeezed them shut, whined low and needy in his throat. Hansen's hand was unyielding but he nodded his head against it in the little freedom he had, urging Hansen on. 

And Hansen pulled _out_. 

The crinkle of a foil wrap and Hansen was smoothing a condom on to himself, testing to make sure it was tight around him. Raleigh was tense with the need to have Hansen back in his mouth and maybe it was only a few seconds but it felt like _hours_ before Hansen took his head again, cradled it in both hands and dragged his cock across Raleigh's cheek til it popped into his mouth.

And.

Began to thrust, sharp little jerks of his hips in and out but mostly in, deeper in Raleigh's mouth with each stroke. Raleigh curled his tongue to catch as much of the taste of Hansen as he could and breathed deep through his nose, smelling sweat and sex and heat. All the liquor from before had worn off but he could get drunk on this. Let his brain shut down and give his body to Hansen to suck and fuck and use. 

Every time Hansen paused Raleigh strained for more. Wanted to bury his nose in the red curls around Hansen's dick, wanted Hansen pressing at the back of his throat so he had to swallow and surrender or gag with it. _Wanted_. Hansen's uncut foreskin moved back and forth each time it passed beneath Raleigh's lips and he tried to catch it each time, tried to run his tongue around the ridge before Hansen thrust deep again. 

The first man he'd been with who wasn't cut had been a trainer for the engineers in Anchorage, older than Hansen and just passing through, and outside of Raleigh's chain of command. Raleigh'd been in his bed every night for two weeks until he'd gone back to Pittsburgh, and he'd been so patient and liked to teach, and if Raleigh hadn't found out the day he left that he had a wife and kids at home Raleigh might've done something stupid.

But what he'd taught Raleigh was good.

Hansen knelt on Raleigh's right so Raleigh could rest his weight on his unhurt side, still half on his back, on the bruises on his left. Another position would've been better for him, would have let him do more. He could've done so much more to make this good for Hansen, but that wasn't what this was about. 

This was about Hansen being the man Raleigh'd been promised he was and _taking_. Fucking Raleigh's mouth because he wanted to, wasn't asking Raleigh's opinion.

God, he wanted the taste of Hansen's naked cock back. The slick, flavorless film of the condom just wasn't the _same_ , wouldn't have been so bad if Hansen hadn't let Raleigh taste him first. Stupid idea, yeah, and Raleigh knew better and he wasn't going to _say_ it but he could _want_.

Hansen knelt up, thrusting faster, thrusting deep enough that Raleigh had to swallow hard, open up his throat and take it. Herc wasn't quiet. Wasn't the talker Raleigh was but he made sounds, grunts and little sighs of approval and just now and then _Good boy, so good_. He slipped a hand out of Raleigh's hair and down Raleigh's throat, stroked up Raleigh's jaw til he could run his fingers around Raleigh's lips where they strained around his own dick. When he slipped his thumb into Raleigh's mouth so that Raleigh had to stretch wider, impossibly wide, and so that Raleigh couldn't stop himself from drooling down his chin Raleigh could've come again if Hansen hadn't wrung him so thoroughly dry.

Hansen _did_ , came in Raleigh's mouth and down his throat and only the condom kept Raleigh from swallowing it all. Took the first really _hard_ thrusts, slapping in until Raleigh got his wish, could his nose into the rich red hair at the base of Hansen's cock. Raleigh focused on breathing, eyes closed in concentration until Hansen eased out, sat back slow and careful and let Raleigh go.

Raleigh blinked up at him, eyes clouded and happy, lips swollen and wet. 

Hansen flopped heavily down beside Raleigh, twisting onto his back with his knees curled up. He was red-faced, flushed all the way down his chest, breathing heavy and deep. And laughing, warm and breathy.

"Jesus, kid." He turned his head toward Raleigh, eyes bright. "You are something else."

Raleigh didn't bother hiding either his grin or his self-satisfaction. The Colonel wasn't bad for the ego himself, come to think of it. "I try, sir."

Hansen reached out to touch his face, just a quick skim of fingers over his nose and cheek; Raleigh didn't try to catch him, just turned his head cat-quick to bring them across his mouth, too. The little ridges of calluses were like sandpaper over the still-bright nerves in his blood-rich lips. His body hummed, warm and alive and deeply, deeply satisfied.

Though not, he thought, _worn out_. 

Hansen's lips quirked up but he took his hand back, too quick for Raleigh to intercept. Pulled the rubber off his dick, tied it off and tossed it negligently somewhere near the trash. Then stretched, stretched til Raleigh could hear his back pop, and relaxed, feet and hands hanging off the bed on either side.

He caught Raleigh staring at his cock.

"Oh, no," Hansen said. "Not that fast, Raleigh. Pleased to know what you think of me, but some things just aren't happening right now."

"Not right now means maybe later?" Raleigh hadn't gotten here by being shy. Wasn't going to start now.

"Huh. Sure you like taking orders. Right after you make it clear what orders you want."

Raleigh shrugged. That was fair.

Hansen shook his head, but he looked -- well, he didn't look like a man who _wasn't_ interested. "Let me get my legs back and then we'll see what happens."

He sat up, hooked his pants off the floor, and Raleigh watched long enough to make sure he wasn't thinking about putting his pants back _on_. That would've required an intervention. Assured, Raleigh got up and pulled a couple of robes out of the bedroom closet. One was white, the other black. They were the hotel's and were kinda ridiculous, puffy terrycloth things that hit him halfway down the thigh, but on the other hand, they were really soft.

Raleigh would've been just as happy to keep wearing nothing, but some guys could get uncomfortable, laying around with someone they barely knew, not fucking but still bare. Making Hansen uncomfortable was not on the list of things to do tonight. He wanted Hansen happy, and relaxed, and up for more. 

Hours to go til dawn.

"Didn't know you smoked," he said when he saw what Hansen had fished out of a pocket. 

Hansen shrugged. "When I drink," he said. "Few other times. Won't kill me before something else does. Want one?"

Raleigh waved them off. "No, thanks. The smell doesn't bother me, though." He held out both robes, let Hansen have first pick. Hansen tossed his pants back onto the floor and took the black one, left Raleigh the white. Dressed, more or less, Hansen went out and Raleigh followed him.

The balcony ran the length of the suite, one whole side of the building. Yancy had one just like it on the other side, but you couldn't hear something happening on one if you were standing on the other. They'd checked. 

It had glass that rose waist high instead of a railing, gave a clear view of the city and part of the bay. The bay glared under floodlights and even this far away a low mechanical thrum cut through the music that still blared through the city. The city would dance until dawn but the clean-up crew would work for days out in the water. They'd stopped Berberoka before the Miracle Mile, killed it out where the currents would dissipate the Blue before it could choke the life out of the shore. But a Jaeger couldn't walk softly through a port or anywhere else, so the harbor would have to be dredged and the piers repaired, and Berberoka's ugly, rotting corpse carved up and carted off for god knows what research the Corps wanted done on it. 

You'd think if they were going to find some secret in a Kaiju that'd make a difference, they would've done it by now. But they didn't pay Raleigh to think, and as long as he wasn't the one who had to be out there with a dive suit and a plasma cutter he wasn't going to complain. He'd keep killing them either way.

Raleigh took a seat on a bench near the edge, shifted cushions around til he was comfortable. Hansen leaned against the glass, looking out.

A matched hissed to life, another little sparkle in the dark. Hansen held a cigarette in his mouth and sheltered both it and the match in his cupped hands, though there wasn't enough of a breeze to even make the flame waver. He was quiet, and so Raleigh was quiet, while he took in a lungful of smoke and then another.

If he squinted, Raleigh could see a hulking shape out on the bay, visible only because it soaked up the light the waves reflected. One of the Jaeger transports, with a launch bay and repair shop and the full squadron of heavy choppers it took to deploy a thousand klicks from the nearest Shatterdome. There were three of them out there, somewhere, with a Jaeger laid down in each.

He got used to the night and the music and the smell of tobacco. It was startling when Hansen spoke and became more than a silhouette against the bright cityscape again.

"So where are you heading next?"

Hansen might've known already, if he'd cared to, but being second in command down in Sydney and _having_ access to read any team's orders didn't mean he'd bother doing it. Kind of flattering that he asked now, really.

"Home," Raleigh said, then elaborated. "Back to Anchorage. Yancy and I grew up there, you know. I was born there, but Yancy wasn't. Mom and Dad were living in Germany while he was born." 

Of course Hansen knew where they were from. That kind of basic biographical data on pilots wasn't just public knowledge -- it was on the trading cards. The rest was stupid even to mention. Who besides Raleigh and Yancy and the teenaged girls who pinned posters of them to their walls cared?

Raleigh coughed to cover up a tickle of embarrassment and said, "We're making a morale stop on Guam on the way. That was always the plan once we wrapped up the joint training exercise in Tokyo, and this drop just put us closer. Gonna check in on the gophers, walk Gipsy around to show off."

'Gophers' were the crew that manned the Guam Breach Early Warning Command and Control Station: all of them volunteers, all of them confined for nine months at a time to a string of bunkers sunk deep in the bedrock of of the island. They serviced the drone fleet that looked out for arriving Kaiju and guarded the pile of nukes that were stashed on the island in case anyone came up with a new plan for blowing up the Breach. 

Like all the best jokes, the name had started out at their expense, and they'd taken it over. Their mission patch showed a cute little cartoon animal peering out from under a combat helmet, carrying a knife and a paranoid expression.

A hundred fifty thousand people had lived on Guam in 2015, when Kaiceph had ignored the big cities all around the Rim and decided to take care of that little bug's nest near the Breach. A few hundred gophers were all that lived there now. Between the Blue and the chemicals weapons and the nukes that'd finally brought the monster down, there was a dead zone ten miles wide in the ocean around the island. Its coral reefs were bleached-white skeletons, bigger than the Kaiju bones left to rot on the beach.

Raleigh'd heard it'd been a pretty place, back in the day.

Hansen made a noncommittal noise and took another drag, flicked ash over the edge before he pushed himself off the glass. Raleigh shifted and Hansen took a seat on the bench beside him. Smoke crept out of his lungs and rose off the cherry tip of the cigarette, but Raleigh had told the truth; he didn't care about the smell. Even if he had cared, he'd rather have Hansen in reach. 

Raleigh didn't push, but then Hansen put an arm around his shoulders and Raleigh leaned into him happily. Couldn't get a better invitation than that.

"Are you always this easy with your one night stands?" Hansen asked. 

"'An outgoing and open personality is one of the key markers of a pilot-candidate. A person who holds secrets closely will not readily accept the obviation of privacy that is inherent in the neural handshake,'" Raleigh quoted from the manual. Didn't manage to keep a straight face, though. "No, not really. I'm not usually with a brother Ranger. I guess I just feel safe, this way." He shrugged. "You did try to put me to _bed_ when you thought I'd had too many. Figured you're not likely to go too far."

"Hm," was all Hansen said. He frowned down at the burning stub he was holding.

_So what about you? Of your post-Kaiju conquests, how do I rate? Top ten? Top five? Ever thought about vacationing in Alaska?_

Raleigh didn't ask any of that, of course. He barely even thought it. He just _wanted_ to know.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that manual's a crock of shit," Hansen said. Just in time to keep the silence from getting awkward, or too comfortable, whichever way it had been heading. "Given who wrote most of it. Single most closed-mouthed, closed-off guy I know, Stacker is. I say that as someone who loves him dearly."

He paused, frowned harder at the cigarette butt like it had offended him, and leaned over Raleigh to stub it out in a saucer on the little table set beside the bench. 

"And Stacker was the best of us," he said. 

His arm dropped down Raleigh's back, tucked Raleigh in closer to his side with his hand on Raleigh's hip. Raleigh said, "He is." But he also said, "I don't think anyone's ever written down what really makes a pilot work. Even the Marshal, you notice how he talks about a pilot, the pilot, like there's ever just one of us? Why does he do that?" Raleigh really didn't know.

"I'm --" _Kind of slutty._ No. 

"I like people, you know? And, yeah, I think that if I hadn't had Yancy, somehow, I would've still wanted to pilot Jaegers. So I would've kept trying, kept going til I found my partner." 

God, that was an awful fucking thought, not having his brother there with him. Having to find someone else who could hold _that_ place in his life. He hadn't had to, and he would never have to, so he shouldn't let the thought bother him as much as it did. He just knew that, fundamentally, he didn't understand people who hadn't had a brother or a sister looking out for them growing up, hadn't always had someone to take care of. And he _really_ didn't understand people who had brothers and just weren't close to him. How did you let that happen?

It made a sad kind of sense that you could stop loving a spouse or a partner or even a parent, someone you met later in life or grew away from. But how did you do that with someone who'd always _been_ there?

He pulled away from Hansen a little, just so he could get a better look at Hansen's expression, in case he was losing him. "And that's it, right there, you know? Doesn't matter how many millions of dollars you throw at training me. If I don't have a partner, I can't drive a Jaeger. The chopper squadrons are full of people who'd make _great_ pilots if they had a partner.

"It's not about personality profiles and reflex matching. It can't be, because the Corps is _really_ good at those these days and the washout rate from Jaeger training's still close to a hundred percent. It's about --"

 _Souls_ , he didn't say.

It wasn't true, what he had said about no one ever having written down what made a good pilot. It was just that the ones who had were crazy, or poets, or both, and anyway they did it mostly by accident. Raleigh had his own weird thoughts about the Drift and the mind and what happened in a Jaeger and if he didn't want to get labeled as one of those weirdos he needed not to spout off to a senior pilot about those thoughts.

"It's about compatibility," he finished, lamely.

Hansen took him back easily enough when he settled, cheeks a little hot.

"My son's in the Academy now," Hansen said. There was pride in his voice. "Just turned sixteen, but he topped out the charts. Won himself a spot against grown men, without trading on his name. He thinks I said some words for him, but," he made a sharp noise and shrugged, gave a thin smile to Raleigh. "It just pisses him off more, thinking I'd do that, and he works harder to prove he doesn't need me.

"I don't know who he'll partner with. I worry about him. Dunno if he'd believe that or try to break my nose if he heard me, but I do. He hasn't had many friends his age, since his mother passed." Hansen did a good job there. You almost couldn't hear his voice start to break.

Raleigh felt -- Raleigh maybe _should have_ felt more out of place than he did, cuddled up on a balcony next to a man he barely knew. Knowing, from Hansen's voice, that he hadn't ever finished grieving for his wife.

Was that the kind of thing you could _finish_?

Hansen breathed out, warm air and lingering tobacco. Voice steady. "I'd worry more if Stacker's kid wasn't there. Maybe they can't hold a neural handshake, maybe they can, but they're still gonna keep each other out of trouble just trying to be first in their class. The two of them never could just _play_ when we had them together."

Raleigh blinked. He knew Hansen had said more than one thing, but he'd only understood the _one thing_. 

"The Marshal's got a _kid_?"

What was she like? What was her _mother_ like? 

How was the PPDC so full of hot dads?

"I've never met her. Why haven't I met her?" 

Hansen laughed. "If you had a daughter, would you let her hang around the likes of us?"

Raleigh would've objected, but he remembered where he was and how he'd got here. "Point," he conceded. 

That conversation had gotten heavy, fast. Raleigh was glad to step back from it. They were supposed to be celebrating. They were supposed to be naked. Next time he and Hansen met, he'd ask the Colonel out for a beer, and they'd talk more. Maybe Raleigh would get him into bed again, but he'd like it if they could just talk. He thought, maybe, they could be friends, as much as lieutenants and colonels got to be friends even in the relaxed ranks of the PPDC.

That just wasn't the plan for right now. You got a tactical advantage, you used it, and Raleigh was side by side against Hansen, his right to Hansen's left, and Hansen's arm cradling him. And Hansen _had_ said he might be up for a second time, after a breather.

Raleigh shifted a little, not trying to hide that he was doing it. Got his hand on Hansen's thigh, where the robe was hiked up and he could get at skin. Nuzzled Hansen's neck, and it wasn't long until Hansen turned and kissed him. Slow and thorough, the way it seemed Hansen always kissed, but without the hard control of earlier, with Raleigh trapped against the wall and so aroused it almost hurt. 

He'd have to draw that dominance out of Hansen again. Easy, now that he knew for sure it was there. And worth it, when Hansen was so reserved and careful not to ask too much. He wanted to make demands and Raleigh wanted to surrender. Better for both of them if they did just that. Raleigh wanted to _give_ , and it was so rare for him to be with a man he could trust so far. Not just because they were Rangers, but because he was coming to see that Hansen was _decent_ on a level that -- wasn't surprising, not from Hansen's reputation, but was good to see.

There were a lot of good people in the world, and Raleigh on the whole would prefer to be with them than with the other kind.

Hansen swallowed down the encouraging nonsense sounds Raleigh made. There was an ashy taste of cigarette in his mouth and, if Raleigh looked for it, a little trace of cinnamon. Stubble rasped against Raleigh's cheek while their mouths moved together, and Raleigh got bolder. He hadn't had a chance before to pay Hansen's gorgeous cock the attention it deserved. That was gonna change, with his hand between Hansen's thighs. He wanted Hansen _hard_ and he wanted it now and he didn't ask permission before he cupped Hansen's balls in his hand and leaned deeper into the kiss, asking now without words.

When he closed his fist around Hansen's cock he pulled rough, fast strokes. It was the kind of hand job that could bring a guy to the edge too fast, the kind you used in the shower when you had ten minutes to make muster and a case of blue balls that was gonna leave you limping if you didn't take care of it _right now_. He wasn't gonna let Hansen off that easy, no, but there was this big, beautiful cock right there and Raleigh wanted to play with it.

Hansen's thighs fell open and Raleigh scrambled at his robe until he got it hanging loose, opened up where Hansen's body was on display like a piece of art, creamy, freckled skin framed by plush, black cloth. Even in the uncertain light, the man was beautiful. Raleigh couldn't kiss him and look at him at the same time, so he chose to look, pulled away from kissing and raked greedy eyes down the fucking _sinful_ body he was pressed against.

He remembered how Hansen had looked kneeling beside him, when the man had _finally_ fucked Raleigh like he'd been asking, forced his cock between Raleigh's lips and fucked until he was satisfied. It'd been unrestrained, rough -- _knowing_ and unapologetic. Like he knew Raleigh could take it, trusted him to take it and love it and Raleigh _had_. Raleigh had limits but they were well beyond anything Hansen had asked, and if Hansen wanted to use his mouth as his own private fuck hole that was _fine_. That was amazing. 

Now he had Hansen where he could touch him. Hansen's head was tipped back and his eyes closed, lips just barely apart. Stoic and silent. _God_ the stoic ones were hot, the ones that made you have to _earn_ the first orgasmic moan. Even Hansen, though, couldn't stop the dark flush creeping over his body, the blood rising to the surface making his nipples hard and hot when Raleigh bent to suck them. 

Hansen ran a hand through Raleigh's hair and Raleigh all but purred beneath the touch. Blunt fingertips massaged his scalp but didn't scratch or pull, so Raleigh closed his teeth around one nipple and shook his head like a dog worrying a bone until Hansen's fist closed in his hair and gave a sharp warning tug. 

He cast his eyes up to to Hansen's face and found a smouldering gaze looking down at him, and Raleigh smiled a smug little smile but ran his tongue in soothing circle around the dents his teeth had left. 

"Brat," Hansen growled. Raleigh hummed approval.

Kissing a path back up his chest he paused to suck quick little kisses as the base of Hansen's throat. Not hard enough to leave a hickey, he wasn't going to be _rude_ , but there were all kinds of things he could do with his mouth Hansen hadn't even seen yet and he wanted Hansen to know they were on offer. Hansen's cock in his hand was flushed and heavy and before Hansen's hips could start to jerk Raleigh let him go, went back to soothing pets on his stomach while Hansen's cock surged up from the tangle of red hairs and Hansen's muscles tensed in want. It was like Hansen was some god damned Australian Viking or something, naked and raw.

Hansen could pillage his village _any_ day, Raleigh thought and that was a mistake because he couldn't _not_ see Hansen in one of those stupid horned hats and laugh and oh god, he did _not_ want to freak Hansen out by laughing right now, but trying to stop it just had giggles sputtering out instead.

Before Hansen could ask what the hell was his problem, Raleigh kissed him and twisted so he could hook a knee over Hansen's thigh. Didn't quite put himself in Hansen's lap but the suggestion was there, clear enough. 

Hansen put a hand on his chest and pushed him back, opened up a little space between them. It was all right because Raleigh was leaning back into Hansen's other arm and Hansen was smiling at him, nearly ready to laugh himself even though he couldn't have _any_ idea of the kind of mental pictures Raleigh was fighting down.

"You are so fucking eager, boy. You're not careful, you'll wear me out and have to take care of yourself while I take a nap." He brushed his thumb across Raleigh's lips and followed it with his tongue. He pulled Raleigh into another long kiss, opening Raleigh's lips and taking his time exploring Raleigh's mouth. 

And then _he_ asked, "Take some pity on an old man," while Raleigh panted open-mouthed, breathless from the kiss.

Raleigh blinked at him, incredulous. Said, fast and urgent, "You are so fucking beautiful, _old man_ , and I'd spend the night on my knees for you if you let me, and if you want to act like you couldn't bend me over this bench right now and have me screaming loud enough to drown out Manila, you might want to do something about that monster cock rubbing my thigh." He smirked. "Just a suggestion. Sir."

Hansen groaned, right there, fuck the stoic act, and he held Raleigh tighter. Dragged Raleigh's leg up over his lap his cock could press full against Raleigh. Raleigh was too hot all of a sudden, burning up like the tropical night had hit him all at once, and he needed to get his robe off now and rut up against Hansen til Hansen made up his mind.

But then Raleigh had an idea.

On the other side of the balcony, out where the afternoon sun would be brightest, there was a pair of rattan loungers. He looked at one speculatively. Nothing in this hotel was cheap. Good cushions, and it looked sturdy enough. Hansen followed his gaze. 

Raleigh smirked harder. "Well, sir. If you're _worried_ you just don't have the _stamina_ , maybe I can help you out. Over there.

"You could lay down, let me sit in your lap. I want to have to spread my legs to straddle you, have your cock right up against mine. I could slick you up, play with you until you start to think about _demanding_. Think you could just throw me over a cushion with my ass in the air and split me open, _make_ me take it hard and fast and helpless for you. Mm, yeah, that'd be nice." 

Raleigh felt himself sinking toward that dreamy, honey-thick place again, where he only had to think of one thing and that was pleasing Hansen, because Hansen would take care of him. And that was just from kissing, and from telling Hansen what he wanted as he thought it through.

"But I think, yeah, I'm not gonna make you wait that long. Before that can happen I'll raise up and take you all the way down. Grind down til I can feel you all the way inside me. God, sir, just having that fat cock inside me -- just having you in my mouth was awesome, you could've choked me on it and I would've kept sucking because it feels _so_ good. I think about you pounding my ass and it's all I can do not to jump you right now. I want to watch you face while you watch me take you all the way in."

Hansen was looking sort of glassy-eyed, looking at Raleigh but he kept glancing back at the lounger. Raleigh leaned in, rested his head on Hansen's shoulder and let his voice go kind of sing-song, getting lost in the fantasy. Trying his damnedest to make it a reality. "I'd sink down on you so slow. Wouldn't finger myself first so I'd be tight for you. No, don't worry. I know what I'm doing. I've done it before and it's not going to hurt. Just feel good for us both. I can make it good."

"You'd dig your hands into my thighs. Flat on your back and you're still going to be in charge. Hold me here til I start to shake and I want to beg you to let me move. You should run your hand up my side, right _here_ ," he took Hansen's hand from his hip and pulled it up to where the bruise throbbed hot and ugly all along his ribs. He shivered at the feeling and closed his eyes in contentment when Hansen didn't pull his hand away. "The pain'll distract me. Barely hurts. Just enough. And it'll remind me of the fight today and how great it feels to win." 

Easy to tilt his head up, press slow kisses to the side of Hansen's neck. Hansen let his hand drift back down to Raleigh's unhurt hip but didn't let go. "When you let me go I'll ride you. Put my hands on your shoulders and just take your cock as hard as you'll let me. Fuck myself on you so you can see everything. Feel everything. You won't touch my cock because you are one hard bastard and you're getting off on seeing me wrecked, and you won't let me touch it even when I ask you to. Even when I lean down, and bite your lip," he closed his teeth softly around Hansen's earlobe just for a heartbeat. "And ask you please, sir, please let me touch myself. Let me come."

He was all but whispering now, voice rough with lust. His cock was hard again and even the soft terry robe was nearly too much sensation right now. "And I won't. I won't come until you tell me to. Sir."

Hansen coughed, quieted. Looked out over the city while Raleigh petted his chest, running his fingers through the rough red hair. 

"Condom?"

"Hmm?" Raleigh asked. "What about?"

"I'll be wearing a condom for this, boy. Will you?" Hansen growled. He turned his head, pressing kisses to Raleigh's neck and jaw like Raleigh had to his, but they were rough, demanding. 

Raleigh's eyes widened. 

"Not -- not if you don't want me to, sir." 

He bit his lip, tilted his head to the side in surrender to Hansen's mouth. Oh, god, yes. Hansen's teeth grazed his neck, not leaving a mark but making sure Raleigh knew he _could_. That would be awkward to wear with his uniform. It wasn't something he usually liked, bruises and love-bites left on his skin, but the _idea_ of it was just one more gift of this incredible night.

Like the idea of what Hansen wanted from him. "It'll be harder for me. Bad as you make me want to come just from listening to your voice, even the little bit of feeling the condom cuts down on helps me keep control. I'm going to be desperate, my hands are going to be shaking with the effort not to disobey, and you're going to be _sadistic_." Raleigh all but purred. 

"If you start to think I'm losing it you can slap me -- not hard, you know how to pull a punch and you're not going to have the room to swing hard enough to hurt me even if you wanted to. I don't actually like pain. Just like being made to pay attention."

"And when you let me, I really am just going to lose it. Gonna shoot all over your chest and I'll want to close my eyes 'cause it's too much but I'm not going to be able to take them off your face, I know that already. You're beautiful and you're going to make me come so hard you'll have to help me stand and I'm not going to be able to look away from you. You can fuck me through my orgasm, use my asshole like I was made for you to fuck, or you can come with me, whatever you want, I'm yours."

"And when I'm done, I'm going to lick up every single drop that I spilled on you."

Hansen drew a sharp inhale and stood, pulling Raleigh to his feet with him. "One rubber, lube. Lots of it. Bring it out here."

"And not a fucking flavored one!" Hansen called at his back when Raleigh sprinted inside to follow orders.

*

Grey dawn light lit the room enough to see by when Hansen shook him half-awake. A few stubborn dance beats still crept in through the balcony doors they'd left carelessly open, but most of the music had been replaced by the chittering calls of morning birds. Comfortable and still weary, Raleigh took his time opening in eyes.

Hansen sat on the edge of the bed, dressed in last night's clothes. Raleigh reached out to squeeze his hand. "Goin'?" he mumbled.

"Yeah," said Hansen. He pressed a kiss to Raleigh's forehead, one last scratch of stubble for Raleigh to remember him by. Raleigh smiled up sleepily but didn't try to kiss him back. Partly because Raleigh could feel some awful morning breath coating his teeth. Partly because, if he started that, he wasn't going to be able to let Hansen go just yet.

Another kiss, this time across his knuckles when Hansen raised their joined hands to his mouth. "Thank you, Raleigh." 

He stood and left. Raleigh heard him pull the balcony door closed on his way.

Raleigh rolled over, twisting himself up in the satiny sheets even as he sprawled out to take over the bed entire. The other side was still body-warm. Hansen must've lingered and then dressed all in a rush.

Raleigh got a pillow situated the way he wanted it just in time to fall asleep.

*

_Apra Harbor, Guam. Or what's left of it. One week later._

**Gipsy Danger pilots engaged. Ready to initiate neural handshake**

"You ready for this, bro?"

"Always. In 3. 2. 1."

**Neural handshake initiated. Pilots are in the Drift. Calibrating. Calibrating.**

"AW DUDE WHAT THE FUCK? RALEIGH NO I HAVE TO WORK WITH HIM."

**Calibrating. Left hemisphere out of alignment. Right hemisphere out of alignment. Pilot vital signs elevated.**

" _Uh, Beckets? You okay in there? Just want to remind you it takes a million bucks a minute to keep the big girl running, so if you could get it together, your country would thank you._ "

"I hate you, bro. _So_ much."

"Love you, too, big brother."

**Calibrating. Neural handshake sustained.**

"Sorry, Tendo. Just catching up. The Becket brothers are all synced up. Gipsy Danger's moving out."

  
  
  



End file.
